Spring Dance Performance

Abby had her spring dance performance for Just For Kix tonight. This should be a wonderful, exciting night - but in reality, it was quite stressful. As a teacher, this is already a busy time of year. I have a newspaper I planned on printing and distributing tomorrow morning, midterms due tomorrow by 3, an awards banquet I am speaking and taking pictures at in the evening, I still do not have a sitter for tomorrow night's awards or my speech polished, I have my grad class project coming due in less than a week, and every week there is some end of the year thing to celebrate. So...getting ready for tonight's final dance performance was not a blissful experience. I flew out of work at 3pm to get the girls from the sitter, I didn't even have the girls in the car when Abby decided to inform me that she needed a crate for her recital that evening. OK - I can handle that. Then she adds, "Oh, and it needs to be decorated Mommy. Can we put glitter and flowers on it?" A decorated crate - why is this the first I heard about it? I asked Abby if she forgot to tell me, "Yeah, I begot mommy, I'm sorry." So I drop her off at dance, take Aine down to my room where Karl is waiting, work feverishly on the paper (which is still not ready), leave at 4:30 to get Abby, fly to pick up a healthy dinner of A&W, swing by the tiny grocery store in hopes they have shiny paper, they do, I buy too much (would be terrible to run out), rush home, unload, inhale dinner, get both girls changed (Aine had a very wet sundress/sweater on), redo Abby's hair, quickly try to get a crate decorated with slippery gold paper, and make it out the door by 6:15. Feeling quite impressed with myself, I confidently walk into the school to set up Abby's crate and notice all the other crates have the front decorated with the girl's name. OK - I go back out to the lobby, grab one of the fliers they are distributing, turn it over, pull out a marker from my purse and as I am about to write "Abby" on it - Abby informs me she wants to be "Abigail" From now on...OK. I write "Abigail" as neatly as possible, scribble on some stars, squibbles, and flowers (all in black sharpie marker) and send the crate on its way. Abby - I mean Abigail - loved it, thankfully she was easy to please. The show was a bit long (like this post is getting) but it was the new instructor's first year and there were problems with sound and such. Anyhow, it went well, the girls were all happy, and Abby enjoyed her moment in the spotlight.
So much stress for such a night. I keep thinking it will get easier as they are older - and then I recall all the evenings, around 9-10 pm when I would "remind" my mom (yeah, she was hearing it for the first time) about some lunch or money or pair of pants or something that I needed in the morning - and why was she so upset about it I am sure I told her about it ages ago...... and then I just sigh - boy do we have a ways to go before those nights are gone.

It Begins

I have been wanting to start a blog for quite some time. The problem always was I didn't seem to have the time to commit to creating one - so I kept putting it off. Now, when I have six chapters to read to prepare me for teaching, three articles to read to prepare me for my Tuesday class, dishes to wash, a house to clean, and kids to take care of - I figured what better way to spend my time than to create a blog that will not take care of any of my current demands. But, I am in the mood to do this so, in my mind, there is no better time to begin.

I really wanted to start a blog because I am terrible at keeping in touch with friends and family - especially those that live far away. If intentions counted for anything - I would be the greatest communicator in the world - but since they don't count for much, I pretty much suck.

If it was just me and my husband, I wouldn't feel so badly, but with three kids running around entertaining us on a daily basis, and growing so rapidly it is frightening, I feel quite inadequate about updating those that cannot be around to see them grow and change. So...hopefully, I will keep up with this blog, and hopefully family and friends can keep up with the kiddos, as well as me and the hubby (although we are not nearly as interesting).

I must admit I am not completely prepared to start this blog; a big part of my plan is to include recent pictures of the kids but my camera is at school (imagine that) and I have no new ones to display. I do have a favorite though - Abby's first day of school (yeah, I know they get out of school in a month...) Aine insisted on standing in the middle of her big brother Karl and her big sister. I guess since she maybe felt they were the center of attention - heading off to a new year of school - that she should be the center of something. I have this picture on one of the computer's screen saver in my classroom. Makes me smile every time I look across the room and see it. At the time of the picture, Karl vowed to wear packers clothing to every day of third grade and with a month to go he has stayed true to his word. Aine wanted to go to school with us nearly every day, she still asks once in awhile but is a bit better with our standard routine. Abby was so excited to begin kindergarten and she has done an amazing job all year of working hard and staying positive. She cannot wait to get better at reading and is so creative. They are quite a crew.